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Saturday, 28 November 2009

Eye Makeup Remover Challenge - Pt 3 The Final


It's the final week of my eye makeup remover challenge!  The contenders are: Talika (100ml £12.72) - winner of last week's high-end challenge, and Amie (125ml £4.75), the winner of the cheap and cheerful contest the week before. Both removers fared extremely well with my every day makeup, so this week, I've made it a bit more difficult.

The Challenge:


This is a version of my night-time smokey eye makeup, but I've altered it slightly to really put the removers to the test.  Again, three shades of shadow applied over Urban Decay Primer Potion, but I've used MAC Blacktrack fluidliner which is next to impossible to remove once it's really set in, and waterproof mascara.  Max Factor Lash Extension Effect mascara to be exact, which will have it's own review soon.

Round One - the melt:

As usual, I begin by holding cotton wool pads soaked in make up remover on my eyes for 30 seconds:


Both have done a pretty good job of soaking off the first layer of mascara, and there's a fair bit of smudging around the eyes:


There's very little to choose between the contenders at this point, so I'm calling this round a draw.

Round Two - after:

After full make up removal, here's how the pads look:


Just look at that Amie pad (on the right), this stuff eats makeup!  This is how my eyes look at this point:



Again, very little to choose between them, however, I am noticing that the skin around the eye I'm using Talika on feels very tacky, and slightly taut, a side effect that I'm not having with the Amie on the other eye.  I mentioned in my last review that the Amie stings my skin, but, I've had this bottle tested by three other people, and they've had no problems with stinging whatsoever, so I'm ignoring that effect for scoring purposes, as that's my skin at fault, and it's highly unlikely to affect many other people, unlike the tacky skin-feel of the Talika.

Round two to Amie.

Round Three - The Shower Test:

Other cleansers have failed miserably at this point, so let's see how our two finalists fare after a hot shower:


Nothing.  No smudges, no runs, no flakes.

A draw.

Round Four - Cleansing oil:

Once again, I break out the big guns (actually, a bottle of Nude Facial Cleansing oil, which is the straw that broke Chanel's back last week), and here's the result:



Again, nothing, nada, zip, zilch, zero.  These are both amazing cleansers, and they've left not a streak or a smudge of leftover mascara between them, which is just fantastic.  However, it means I'm left to judge them on things outside of just their cleansing ability, which is going to make my final judgement slightly unobjective, so bear with me.

Final Analysis

This is exceptionally difficult to call.  Both products have performed extremely well, and rather better than I expected any oil free makeup removers to perform when I started this trial, but my gut instinct is that if I were to purchase either of these products again, it'd be the Amie (even with the stinging), over and above the Talika.  It's cheaper, for one thing - especially when you compare it on a ml for ml basis - and I prefer how it leaves my skin feeling afterwards, not sticky, not taut, not soapy.  It's an excellent value product, and I think the values behind the company are ones I admire. 

I realise I am very far from the target market for this range (it's primarily aimed at teenagers and women in their early 20's) but I think good skincare is a lesson best learned early.  Certainly, it's one I wish I'd learned earlier. Personally, I think my skin is so sensitive now because there simply weren't affordable products like this around when I discovered makeup, and I spent a long time applying cheap slap - a lot of cheap slap! - and removing it with the cosmetic equivalent of paintstripper as a result. I think it's that which has left my skin needing to be treated a lot more gently now.

There are a lot of other products in the Amie range, if they're all made up to this standard - and I suspect they are - it's a very good skincare range, whatever your age.
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Saturday, 21 November 2009

Eye Makeup Remover Challenge - Pt 2

So, here is part two of my eye makeup remover challenge!  Last week, in the cheap and cheerful round, I tried Boots Botanics and Amie makeup removers, and Amie won. This week, I'll be testing Talika and Chanel (my own personal favourite!) make up removers against one another.  Whichever one wins this round will challenge Amie cleanser next week, and be declared the champion of champions ...

(as an addendum to last week's challenge, I've had two independent adjudicators also test Amie, and there was NO stinging in either case, it really is just my horrendously sensitive eyes that it appears to affect.)


The Contenders:



Here we have Talika lash conditioning cleaner (which I got free in a SpaceNK goody bag), and my personal bottle of Chanel BiPhase eye make up remover.  Once again, we have an oil-free formulation (the Talika) and an oil based one - the Chanel.  At this point I'm wondering why all eye makeup removers have to be blue?  A lot of them use cornflower extract, I'm almost certain that won't make things blue, but I digress somewhat.

Talika claims theirs is the first oil-free formulation to work on waterproof mascara, and says it strengthens and lengthens lashes, I'm only testing the first of those claims, but I'm intrigued by the second!  


Chanel claim: that it "Removes makeup perfectly from the lashes and the eye contour, leaving the skin soft and supple. Combines effective makeup removal with respect for the delicate eye area." I'm on about my fourth bottle of this stuff, and I love it.

The Challenge:


 
 
Again, three shades of shadow - over a primer - and mascara.


Round one:

First thoughts: Neither product has a particular scent, once on the cotton wool, but the Talika is actually gel that you have to pump (quite hard!) to get out of the airtight tube.  Here's the cotton wool after 30 seconds on the eye:


No idea what happened to the focus here, sorry!

As you can see, the Talika has got to work straight away on the mascara, but the Chanel has removed more of the eyeshadow.  Here's how my eyes looked at this stage:

  
 
 
Yes, definitely the Talika is ahead here. Round one to Talika.

Round Two:

I then continued and removed the rest of my eye makeup with the pads, here's the guck shot:


 

Results-wise, the products are neck and neck here, it looks like they've both cleaned the eye-area well, but I've noticed that the Talika has left the eye area feeling a little tack-y to the touch, and slightly more taut than the Chanel.  There is no stinging from either.

Round 2 to Chanel.


Round Three: (yes, I've added an extra round this week, as the results were too close to call!)

After what happened last week when I had the shower, I decided to try and replicate that situation. First, I steamed my face a little, then - as that seemed to have no effect - I splashed my face with a little warm water:


 
 
Again, not a lot has happened here, there's a tiny bit of smudging on my right eye, but nothing like as dramatic as last time!  Then, I decided to bring  out the big guns. Cleansing oil.  And this is what happened:



The Chanel has a very definite smudge of mascara!  I'm devastated. Seriously!  I've been recommending it as the best eye makeup remover for as long as I've been using it!  Coco, how could you?

Talika wins!

Next week, Amie Vs Talika  an all oil-free remover final.  I'm deeply surprised!






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